6405.   Adulteration   of   citrate   of   magnesia.     V.   S.    *    *    *    -\.    Edward   A.?
Helmsen (De Moll & Helinsen).    Plea of guilty.    Fine, $20.     (F. & I>.
No. 8514.    I. S. No. 9816-m.)
On December 4, 1917, the United States attorney for the District of Colum??
bia, acting upon a report by the Secretary of Agriculture, filed in the police?
court of the District aforesaid an information against Edward A. Helmsen,?
trading as De Moll & Helmsen, Washington, D. C, alleging that said defend??
ant on February 9, 1917, at the District aforesaid, in violation of the Food and?
Drugs Act, did offer for sale and sell a quantity of an article labeled in part,?
" Solution of Citrate of Magnesia * * * De Moll & Helmsen, Pharmacists,?
9th & B. Capitol Sts., Washington, D. C," which was adulterated.
Analysis of a sample of the article by the Bureau of Chemistry of this de??
partment showed the following results:
Citric acid (grams per 100 cc)?
7.28
Magnesium oxid (grams per 100 cc)?
1.10
Adulteration of the article was alleged in the information for the reason that?
it was sold under and by a name recognized in the United States Pharmacopoeia,?
and differed from the standard of strength, quality, and purity as determined?
by the tests laid clown in said Pharmacopoeia, official at the time of investigation?
of the article, in that it contained in 100 mils of the solution, magnesium citrate?
corresponding to 1.10 grams of magnesium oxid, whereas the said Pharmacopoeia?
provid.es that 100 mils of the solution shall contain magnesium citrate corre??
sponding to not less than 1.5 grams of magnesium oxid; and in that the article?
contained in 100 mils of the solution 7.28 grams of citric acid, whereas said?
Pharmacopoeia provides that the article should contain 33 grams of citric acid?
in 350 mils of the solution, equivalent to 9.43 grams of citric acid per 100 mils?
of the solution; and the standard of strength, quality, and purity of the article?
was not declared on the container thereof.
On December 4,1917, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to the information,?
and the court imposed a fine of $20.
C. F. MABVIN, Acting Secretary of Agriculture,
472	
BUKEAU OF CHEMISTKY,	
[Supplement B9,